In conventional systems for patient health assessment, a case manger, such as a registered nurse or nurse practitioner, may contact a patient (e.g., by telephone) to perform one or more “assessments” on the patient. In conventional systems, an assessment includes a predefined series of questions to be asked to the patient. Some assessments are “linear,” meaning that the questions are asked in a certain order. The case manger typically asks the patient each question in order to solicit a response from the patient. Once all of the questions for an assessment have been answered, the assessment is deemed to be completed. The completed assessment can then be used by the case manager or other medical professionals to provide a care plan for the patient. In some instances, the case manager may have multiple assessments to complete with a patient.
However, a problem exists with conventional case manager assessments when the patient interrupts the linear question list of an assessment to provide unrelated information or to ask his or her own questions to the case manager. Such events can derail an assessment and may cause confusion and unnecessary delays in completing the assessment. Because the assessment process is lengthened, patients can get frustrated with the process and may perceive the case manager as simply reading from a script and not actually caring about the patient's well-being. Case managers are often left with incomplete assessments and an array of notes to reconcile through data entry after a communications session is completed with the patient. As such, the conventional approach to case manager assessments is time-consuming and error-prone for the case manager, which may result in inadequate medical care provided to the patient.
Accordingly, there remains a need for systems and methods for patient health assessment that overcome the drawbacks and limitations of current approaches.